Hack Recap: LA Hacks

What happens when more than 1,200 hackers, makers, and designers gather inside UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion; you give them 36 hours and unlimited Red Bull; and you provide them with SmartThings demo kits?

Some seriously smart hacks.

In three short years, LA Hacks has grown from a 250-person event held in a humble co-working space to one of the country’s premier university hackathons. And while the bar has been raised, the goal remains the same: Students have 36 hours to build the most exciting tech products possible, judged by a slew of industry professionals.

After giving a quick rundown of what SmartThings is all about and performing a live on-stage demo, we set up a table to loan out some SmartThings kits so that teams could hack away.

Here are some of our favorite hacks that students created using SmartThings at LA Hacks:

• CotCam uses Dropcam and a SmartSense Motion sensor to alert a homeowner via text message if there is an unwanted guest intruding.

• Smyle asks you a series of questions each day to figure out your mood over time. Once it has figured out how you’re feeling, it sets the environment using hue lights and music accordingly.

• Phocus controls the flow of energy in the room with vibratory and visual feedback. They used the NeuroSky Mindwave to detect concentration levels. When the user reaches a particular state of relaxation, the lights turn off. The challenge is to keep the light off for an extended period of time by staying relaxed.

• SmarTV uses SmartThings to set the mood during a movie in real time. A Philips hue bulb matches the coloring of a scene using a SmartApp and the DirecTV API.

• NokNok is a sophisticated, facial-recognition door-answering system. When someone knocks, a SmartSense Multi sensor will detect the vibration and a camera will check Face++ for a match to see if the door should unlock automatically, or stay locked. Far out.

• Finally, the winner of best SmartThings hack is Home.ly. Using the Myo armband, they were able to control a variety of SmartThings sensors. They also built a web app that allows you to control devices. Pretty amazing.